


plant your hope with good seeds

by olivinearc



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, but its all so nonchalant, emotional moments are for NERDZ, gbf has such big dramatic stakes and weapon descriptions, gbf tarot, must be nice tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 06:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17482802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivinearc/pseuds/olivinearc
Summary: For the GBF tarot.Sturm, Drang. "Journey and Fate" + "At its heart, the Lovers is about choice."A quiet moment before Akasha and the rest.





	plant your hope with good seeds

The sky stretched infinite and Drang followed in pursuit. (Couldn’t stop, wouldn’t stop, probably not even sure how to stop anymore.)

While the airship made good time on the way to Zinkenstill, the transit still allowed a moment of respite after the chaos of Amalthea. Long enough for him to catch his breath and ease off the leg, to gather his wits and bearings and lose the attention of the actual crew members of the Grand Cypher. Long enough for him to look back in turn and keep quiet and listen as they fretted amongst themselves, as they didn’t bother to keep their voices down around him.

Long enough for the implications of it all to sink in and earn a long sigh because — _well._ While this certainly staved off the boredom, there were better ways to go about it.

Familiar footsteps came in from his left, and he almost expressed gratitude about the lack of sword jab to go with it. He held his tongue instead.

Sturm kept silent for a moment as they idled; let the quiet, the stillness wash over them as the girl in blue chattered to the captain of the crew, and the ship soared through the air.

And then, “It’s concerning.”

“A lot of things are at the end of the day,” he replied lightly. “But for better or worse, they end up not mattering most of the time anyway, hm? Last time I checked, they had a pretty good track record on things.”

“Most things aren’t this,” she countered, faced towards him properly. The look in her eyes was the same as ever, expression stoic and voice measured. He knew better. “Not even close.”

“Well, no. But we’re here for it regardless, so.” He shrugged. “All we can do is push through it, ultimately. If their track record isn’t enough, we have our own.”

“You’re oddly confident for someone who just got their leg stuck while they tried looting a house. An abandoned one. Already collapsed.”

“Ah, that was just to help bring attention to our lovely companions!” he protested. “Which worked, as you can see. I daresay we’re on a roll, success wise. We just have to keep the momentum going.”

She grunted noncommittally, and he just chuckled. Eyed the girl in blue again, the dragon, the captain. The heroes who had faced insurmountable odds and pushed forward regardless, earning victories and granting salvation wherever they went, the children in over their heads.

“Well, what do you think, then?” He inclined his head Vyrn’s way. “Do you think our little lizard friend can suppress the power of the stars?”

Sturm pursed her lips as she appraised the dragon. “It’d be a tall order, but nothing’s impossible.”

“You say that, but I’m pretty sure it’s impossible for me to beat you in a sword fight.” He flashed a goofy smile, all teeth and humor even in the wake of her warning glare — watered it down to more tolerable levels before continuing. “Pretty impossible for us to stop following Apollonia now, also.”

“Of course not,” she said. “She’s given no reason for us to cancel the contract, and there’s no doubt she’ll pay out.”

“Of course, of course.”

He slouched back again and observed the clouds floating overhead. The blue burned into his retinas near uncomfortably, an ultramarine that left himself feeling re-energized and washed out in comparison all at once. He fled and looked toward Lyria again, her cyan tresses more pale, easier on the eyes but a little ominous in its uniqueness. He found contentment in his own dusty blue. Wondered, in passing, about Great Aunt Ferry.

“I think about our luck sometimes,” he started, tugging on a stray curl. And then, when Sturm tilted her head in question, “We’re in this world right around the same time things get interesting. Helped kickstart them explicitly, even. Sure, the ball might’ve gotten rolling with or without us, but we’re the ones who got it done regardless.”

She hummed. “Wise words for once.”

“Sharp ears bring a sharp wit, or however the saying goes.” Another chuckle, and then a beat. “We had a choice when we first met her. We could’ve left her to fend for herself and have her toughen up quicker, or we could’ve done what we did.

“And now look at where it’s taken us on this journey,” he went on, as light as ever, whimsical in his tone. Airy, even, because although he may have specialized in water, there was an overlap in how it and wind handled themselves — able to edge into shades of grey, the ability to flow between gentleness and precise fury on a whim that earth and fire never could grasp quite as easily. The learning curve to strike as hard as those two that much steeper in turn. “Dealing with creatures who can hold back the stars. Primal beasts that can shape our spirit, corruptible embodiments of nature, a soulless girl with a soul that’s about to get shoved out in a best case scenario.” A pause of consideration, and then, “Not the Mist Shrouded Isle though. I’ll take all responsibility for that one.”

He didn’t blame Apollonia — far from it. If either Sturm or he had any doubts about her or her goals, they wouldn’t have gone as far as they’d done for her. (And the farther they’d go, even.)

“Don’t tell me you’ve replaced your usual foolishness with an even worse sort,” she warned, always so serious. He felt only a slight pang of disappointment that she wouldn’t even acknowledge his last little point.

“Of course not,” he admonished, and put a hand to his chest. Cracked a small smile unreadable even to him — a little too pleasant, a little too dangerous, a little too eager. (A little too honest.) “On the other hand, the higher the stakes, the more I can’t help but get excited, you know? I don’t think we’d be able to start something so huge if it didn’t mean there was a worthwhile end to all of it.”

She stared back unperturbed. “Oddly fatalistic of you.”

“There’s a comfort in the assured.”

“How much comfort do you allow yourself, then?” Sturm asked.

“Enough to curb some of the edge, I suppose. Everything lined up quite nicely, you have to admit," he said. “The captain with the dragon and the girl in blue, the knight that’d have enough empathy and enough power to stick with the girl. Me and you. Us and Apollo and Orchid.”

“You’re getting particularly mushy right now. Wipe the smile off your face.”

“I suppose I took you being vulnerable with me a little too optimistically,” he confessed. “My apologies for turning it on you. But, hm, can you imagine? Someone filling the same purpose as us.”

“If there was another person like you out there, I’d imagine they’d be in a ditch somewhere,” she said, hand resting delicately on the pommel of her sword. “Don’t push it. You’ve had me entertain this long enough.”

“I’m sure your equivalent would be the one to put me in the ditch in the first place, at least,” he tossed out, let the joke linger for a bit until the blue ate at him again. The smile danced behind a veneer of habit again. “Then again, tragedies were quite popular back in the day, weren’t they? A big build up to make the topple even worse. A drive and storm.”

Sturm considered him, the look in her eyes the same as ever, expression stoic and voice measured. “You say you take a comfort in the assured. Do you think there isn’t a surety behind my words?”

“As sure as the sky is blue.”

So she said, “Then let’s say the lizard can restrain the stars.”

Drang just looked at her and received another reminder as to why they kept each other around. Equals could be so hard to find.

“Let’s hope,” he agreed eventually. “But beyond that, you’re right, it is concerning. It all is. Just a little bit, realistically speaking.”

But then Sturm just let out a small exhale, barely audible, and Drang realized he _may_ have slipped up in a dance that he should have had memorized.

“Say this does end up being a tragedy,” she started with a hesitancy and oh. Oh. He’d definitely messed up.

“I’d say the journey more than makes up for the destination,” he replied, tacked on a little too quickly, “But it’s no good to think so negatively, hmm, Sturm?”

The draph rolled her eyes, but didn’t reply further. Like she needed to.

It wasn’t something he wanted to entertain, but some things just had to be acknowledged in their line of work. In their line of being, really, because this long overstepped a work-only boundary and veered a little closer to actual personality than either of them liked.

With scant else to do besides simmering in unfortunate implications, he pulled out his orbs and twirled them in one hand, a steady pace kept as blue and purple danced around each other and sparkled brightly in the sun. (Only from the sun, for now. Thankfully, thankfully, one little glimmer of hope that told him calamity wasn’t _just_ yet, not yet, the kids would keep filling shoes that shouldn’t have fit —)

They were in the eye of a hurricane, the calm before another storm. Fretting this bad really wasn’t a good sign for either of them, and he liked to think this was where one of his strengths lay.

“I think you’re going to be right, like you usually are. And at the end of the day, there’s an appeal in it, I think. The storm and stress of what’s going on right now,” he said. “See how far things can go when everything’s off the table. Time to make ourselves proud and others a little nervous, hm?”

“Time to stop sounding like an inspirational quote book.”

“Aw, if that’s what you’d like.” He chuckled, perked up. “Oh! I just thought of another impossible thing.”

“Are you sure it’s something you want to say out loud?”

“Of course!" He beamed. “I can’t see me going on without you, you know. You can be sure of that.”

She finally cracked and jabbed him with her sheathed sword, earned a squawk that garnered more than a few uneasy glances. Settled things properly again, let it be a little more easy to breathe.

“I thought you said you’d warn me the next time you’d do that!”

“I gave you a moment to shut your mouth.”

He made a show of cradling his side and hissing until there was a distinct creaking noise, the lightest tug down as the ship altered its speed. The duo took that as their cue to join the rest of the group, earned the glimpse of green in a sea of blue, Zinkenstill plain and unassuming as it sat cradled in its mountains.

They called it the Hermit Island as a nickname; labeled the guarded mark in a literal translation. As for whether it meant a mark for progress in a journey or a spot for treasure was hard to say. But regardless.

In the moment, he focused more on the way Sturm’s shoulders relaxed back to normal, that fraction of an inch of a smidge; the way she carried herself with utmost confidence. 

The sky stretched infinite and Drang followed in pursuit. (Because can you really be satisfied until you’ve seen the very end?)

**Author's Note:**

> Blue Sphere Description  
> "An azure crystal imbued with the knowledge of a lost age. When calamity draws near, it glows with the light of wisdom to sound the alarm in this world—and this seal, which should have been eternal, is about to be broken."
> 
> asofterworld 1024
> 
> So when I applied I was lucky enough to have been chosen to write for the "Shady Characters" category, which included Sturm and Drang, who I knew I -had- to write because i love those dorks (even sparked Sturm, got lucky with Drang [and Orchid and BK]) I don't quite have the ingame chapter on me anymore, but this is set right before Granjeeta and co. go fight off against Akasha, once they find Sturm and Drang totallynot!looting houses and pick them up. The themes were "Journey and Fate" and "
> 
> This is actually a pretty old work now, finished around like April or May of 2019 that I hadn't yet posted because the tarot deck project this was for was only just now delivered to my home. It had a lot of love put into it, and I'm glad it became as successful as it did, especially since it helped raise money for charity and the sheer amount of passion the organizers had running it meant a lot to me personally. I auditioned with bits of Pompeii so I actively tried to emulate that feel, just a little.
> 
> Although I think there's a distinctive difference to my writing style before and after I did the KS demo for the Softly, With Teeth VN so that's why it feels older lmaooooooo. GBF and fanfic in general kind of intimidates me because of the constant fear of staying in character with everyone, but I'm glad I was given the chance to push my boundaries and try at all, so hopefully they were a little in that territory. I like both mercenaries a lot, but Drang felt like a must to write from perspective wise (even though he's a tall order aaaa. Had to shove in my asofterworld darlings though fdlksdjf and editing at 5 am? hell yea.)
> 
> Hope you enjoy, my twitter is @thesummerwars.


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